The weekend

is over already....  Happy Tax Day!!!!  The weather over the weekend was GORGEOUS and it went WAY too fast!!!!!


I am linking up today with B Loved Boston for her weekend recap link up.


We didn't do A LOT but Little Miss & I enjoyed the weather as much as we could. My Mr. and Young Mr. worked all weekend digging fence post holes and got sunburned.


Saturday morning, Mr. & I went for a 6 mile walk (after 4 miles on Friday evening). My legs are still killing me!
The boys headed out to work and Little Miss & I took our books out to the porch to relax a little. I pulled weeds and Little Miss picked up sticks and junk in the yard for a couple of hours.

Little Miss wanted to do a little "photo shoot" with her Littlest Pet Shop animals. She staged, I shot.

We all caught the matinee of The Jungle Book.

It was a little drug out in places but followed the story very closely (which I always appreciate!).

Yesterday morning, was more porch reading. I had to work in the afternoon, so Little Miss & I walked to the library to soak up a little more "nice".

After work, I made chicken alfredo for dinner - it wasn't too bad!

I watched Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal start making their nest in our bushes out front. It should be an interesting spring if they are going to be around!

I hope you all had a good weekend!

Friday Letters

TGIF my friends!!!!!

I'm linking up with Wifesticated today for Friday Letters.

Dear Family, I love you guys so much! Thanks for helping me feel better this week and cheering me up.

Dear Cubbies, You've had me smiling all week! Keep it up guys!!!!

Dear Spring, Thank you for finally showing up. I'm looking forward to seeing you for a while.

Dear Readers, Thank you for stopping by and leaving your comments and thoughts. They've been pretty entertaining this week!

Dear Bloggers, Keep it up! You're posts are awesome.

Dear Friday, I am SO happy to see you!

Dear Weekend, Go slow!


Dear Photography Supports & Encouragers, Thanks for cheering me on; booking your shoots with me and your encouragements.

What are you up to this weekend?


PS: I'm launching my photography website HERE

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Today I'm linking up with Rachel for What I'm Loving Wednesday. Please stop by her blog and others that link up!

This week, I'm loving:

*My husband and kids!!!!

*The upcoming weekend forecast!

*I started knitting a shawl/scarf last night. I think it's going to be pretty when it's done.

*We tried these last night. Meh...not my favorite M & Ms. The honey nut were probably the best of the three.

*These posts from Facebook:

*Baseball

*That whatever sinus crap I had going on over the weekend is finally easing. UGH!

*Books

*Working toward getting in 10,000 steps each day (hasn't been so good the past week)

*New blogging friendships

*An old high school friend getting back in touch and catching up

What are YOU loving this week?

Travel Tuesday - Universal Studios, Days 5, 6 & 7

Welcome to the continuation/completion our recap of our trip to Universal Orlando from February.
You can read the other two posts: HERE and HERE


Day 5 (Sunday, 2/14/16) - The security line to get into the park was HUGELY, GIANTLY long! So - since we decided we still have a couple more days, we would bail out and try a little later. We walked back to the hotel and relaxed by the pool for a couple of hours.

We headed back to the park and had lunch at Comic Strip Café - the food was ok. Then we walked around and took in all the people and watched them. We ended up not really riding anything and just hanging out at the hotel. It was a nice, relaxing day.


Day 6 - It was a cooler, cloudy morning. Walked to the park and Young Mr. and I headed right for Rip Ride Rocket. We got loaded on the train and the ride broke down... So we unloaded and waited for almost 45 minutes. But got back on and LOVED it!

We ran to ride Transformers. The Mr., Young Mr. and Little Miss rode MIB. I needed to sit out for a little bit and enjoy some people watching.

After lunch at Burger King we played some mini golf; went back and napped then bowled at the bowling alley in our hotel.

We had a little appetizer platter for dinner and a big brownie dessert

Day 7 - We finished packing up and ran our butts to the hotel for early admit to Harry Potter.

Enjoy these photos from our Harry Potter morning:

At Platform 9 3/4:

This pretty much sums up the trip :)

We left sunny Florida and landed in Chicago that evening to 32 and snow. UGH!

Just a note

On marriage and family...

I don't usually get real serious here and I'm not really sure what I saying here, but-let the rambling begin. As I lay in bed the other night, I reflected on how lucky and loved I am.


My Mr. and I have been married for 18 1/2 years and known each other for almost 21 years. (WOW....that long already!) We have never parted without a kiss and an "I love you", even when we were upset. We have been through some tough times - really tough times and we're still standing together. I think because of those times, our love is stronger and we understand each other a lot better. That man is my best friend and I truly can not imagine my life without him!


I know some people think we're "strange" or "overbearing" or whatever you want to call it, because we do so many things together-we rarely do anything without the other (that doesn't count going to work). We do a lot of things with our kids too. We don't go out by ourselves more than a couple times a year. BUT - it's who we are. We like spending time together and with our kids. I brought Young Mr. into our marriage, so we have really never known not having a child around.


We treasure our time together and with our kids. We know our kids won't always be around all the time (I think...). If that is "wrong" to other people, well - that is fine. I feel like how we handle our marriage and family is our business.


Cheers to all of you and your loved ones!

Throwback Thursday

I am going to jump in the Throwback Thursday ring this week.

Here are a few of my more "popular" posts from the 10 years I have been blogging.

Did You Hear the One - where a movie scene was filmed at our house.

Concerts - where I post about concerts.

Vacation 2015, Day 6 - a recap of our trip to Arizona last year.

Thank you for stopping by! I love your comments.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Wednesday my friends! I hope your week is going well. Mine has been good, thus far!

I'm loving...

This guy! He cheers me up and cheers me on. He has a huge heart. He works hard and doesn't complain about it.

Disney, November 2015

I'm loving...

These two! They laugh together, fight, make fun of poor old mom but I wouldn't change it.

Disney, November 2015

I'm loving...

This book. WOW! My friend Laura's new book comes out April 19. It is a haunting story that had my skin crawling a few times. You need to get it!

I'm loving...

Baseball is back in season! The Cubs are off to a great start. My Mr. got us tickets for a game in May (by sheer luck) and I'm hoping the weather is decent that day!

I'm loving...

My Mr's observation while watching the ACMs the other night, that Blake Shelton and Taylor Kinney look alike. I have to agree.

I'm loving...

This book came out yesterday (4/5). I read it about a month ago and thought it was wonderful.

I'm loving...

Hearing the birds in the morning and seeing everything turning green and blooming. Welcome spring!

I'm loving...

All the likes and views my Photos by Jen Facebook page has gotten the past couple of weeks. Thank you!

What are YOU loving this week?

Weekend recap

First and foremost, Happy Monday and Happy Opening Day!!!!

Today I am linking up with B Loved Boston for her weekend recap link up. I hope you'll pop over and read some of those blogs too!

To me the weekend starts when I leave work on Friday.

So... Friday night we went to Ruby Tuesday's for a little belated birthday dinner.

Saturday, the weather was...well, Midwestern!!! We went to Chicago for the day and drove through a few white outs with a bitingly cold wind behind them. (Thanks, Canada...) BUT we had a good lunch, a fairly easy drive and stopped at Woodfield Mall for a couple of hours.

Our first stop was at Berland's House of Tools...

The boys enjoy it!

 We might get a little bored...

and try to amuse ourselves.

Then, on to the city for lunch!

You might have seen it on Diners, Drive Ins & Dives. It doesn't look like much from the outside and we drove past it the first time without seeing it. It was good!

 

 

Then through the blowing snow to the mall:

I got some macaroon from Godiva (SOOOO good!)

 Little Miss got new bedding. 

Before:

 After:

Yesterday (Sunday), we laid pretty low. The weather was sunny, windy and 70. My Mr. and Young Mr. went to work for about an hour. I got some laundry done, worked on our taxes and watched the ACMs.

I got two sets of photos out to clients this weekend and feel good about them.

One was for a 40th surprise party I shot a couple weeks ago:

and another of this sweet pea:

 Taxes are done and it didn't turn out as bad as I was stressing about!

The ACMs I found to be pretty dull, the sound was terrible and the one bright spot for me was this commercial that was on during them:

How was your weekend?

Friday Letters

TGIF!!!!!

Dear Friday,

Dear Mother Nature, You need to get yourself together. It's spring! How about some springtime weather?

Dear Kenny, I am really enjoying your new song. (Have a listen...)

Dear Cubbies, I'm looking for you in the next couple of days. Woot woot!!!!

Dear Readers, Thank you for stopping by. I love your comments.

Dear Bloggers, I am really enjoying reading your blogs. Thank you for the great content and fun!

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!!!!